Monday, May 9th: “‘Cause You Had A Bad Day”-[lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]James Blunt[/lastfm]

Photo by David Cannon//Getty Images

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”–Dolly Parton

Sometimes you just have to embrace the fact that you had a “bad day,” learn from it and move on. Not every day can be your best day and if things always worked out the way you wanted them to, you might take all the good things for granted.

When you have an awful day, remind yourself that life is most beautiful because there is the dark to highlight the brightness of the light. The universe always has a way of evening things so you get equal doses of each.

When they say the grass is always greener on the other side it seems cliche, but part of the reason for that profound green is that as human beings we are intoxicated by potential. While we may feel guilty for wanting to “breakaway” from our stable lives, there is something intrinsically human in the urge for freedom from the mundane.

Even if you can’t act on those urges, recognize them, contemplate how that freedom would make you a better person, and try to mesh that self-knowledge with the stability in your life.

“I’ve never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful.” –Author Unknown

Try this little tactic whenever you feel like life is getting you down: Smile.

Smile to yourself in the mirror, smile to random people on the street, smile to your computer screen right now. According to psychologists, just the act of moving the muscles on your face into the smile position, alleviates some feelings of negativity.

Which makes sense; a smile is a simple gesture that encourages happiness to whomever sees it.

Sometimes the world can turn you “upside down,” but if you imagine that the planet is just one playful jungle gym, swinging upside down is part of the fun. True happiness comes from unadulterated imagination; if you build a subconscious fort of happiness, it will come.

The most important thing to remember is that all the potential for happiness is within you. No one else can cultivate it for you. That is a garden of imagination that you have to water yourself.